Former Ghanian Minister arrested in Sh142.1 million scandal

Ghana's former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Dapaah. [Facebook]

Ghana's former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Dapaah was arrested due to a corruption related case.

Dapaah was placed under house arrest by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on Sunday, July 23, a few days after she reported a theft incident from her house.

A court charge dated last Thursday describes the stolen items as $1M which is equivalent to Sh142.15 million, 300,000 Euros (Sh47 million) and other personal items including handbags worth Sh4.9 million.

The accused are two of her former employees who were seen enjoying moments of extravagance, they are said to have bought and built houses as well as cars after the items went missing.

Citizens of Ghana raised questions on the amount of foreign currency leave alone the huge sums of Ghanaian cedis the minister had amidst the tough economic times the country is going through.

On Saturday, July 22, Dapaah wrote a letter of resignation to the president citing that the items included in the court charge are not what she reported to the police.

"I can state emphatically that those figures do not represent correctly what my husband and I reported to the police, I am very much aware of the import of such stories around someone in my position," Ms Dapaah said.

She also added that she will fully cooperate with state agencies during the investigation to ensure they get all the facts correct.

Dapaah was one of only three female ministers since the election of the current president of Ghana, Akufo-Addo.

Initially, she served in the Ministry of Aviation for a year before being transferred to Water, where she served for five years.

The president assured her of her exoneration in a letter saying "I am confident that at the end of the day, your integrity, whilst in office, will be established."